Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

1. Through capacity is good start for the youths in agriculture sector. It will act as a motivation to them in the field of agriculture but when it comes to implementation from the capacity building the results will be very low. This could be due to lack of capital to support them in starting up the agriculture projects although they have the desire to do so. Another reason could be due to lack of support that they need in implementation their agriculture projects. From the workshop they will gain knowledge but there will be nobody to follow them to ensure implementation has been achieved.

2. From Kenya we have an initiative whereby we first educate youths on the value of agriculture and the one we are currently dealing with is the importance of youths in coffee farming. In this initiative we educate the parents first on why they should start nurturing their children when they are still young on the importance of coffee farming. Once that has been done the children will grow up understanding the coffee industry and when they are old enough they can be given some coffee trees to start taking care of. For the youths who we encourage them to participate in coffee industry we first do a follow up at farm level to ensure the parent have given them some of the trees to start with. This will help in implementation of the coffee farming agenda. For those who have farms we follow them at their farms to offer them some inputs support and agronomy extension. The youths can also start their own group and from what they obtain after coffee payment they can use it as a contribution for their group savings.

3. Post capacity building that the youths can be given is supporting them to start sustainable initiatives like chicken rearing or dairy or any activity which will have long term effect on their initiatives.

In addition doing a follow up on the implementation of their projects plus offering them extension support.

4. The kind of environment youths need to be in a position to sustain themselves is to ensure they have a mentor and follow up.

English translation below

Bonjour Justin, bonjour à tous,

Je viens partager avec vous des exemples du Togo sur les trois points soulevés.

Existe-t-il de bons exemples dans vos pays ou dans votre environnement de travail, sur l'un ou l'autre des points suivants, dont vous aimeriez nous faire part dans cette discussion?

1. Des politiques gouvernementales ayant créé un environnement favorable à la participation des jeunes dans l'agriculture.

Le Togo dispose d'un cadre politique très fourni qui cré un environnement favorable à la participation des jeunes dans l'agriculture.

• La Stratégie de Croissance Accélérée et de Promotion de l’Emploi (SCAPE), dont le premier axe porte sur l'agriculture; 
• Le Programme National d’Investissement Agricole et de Sécurité Alimentaire (PNIASA)
• Le Programme National de Développement Agricole au Togo (PNDAT)
• Des instruments financiers d'appui à la formation agricole rurale et à l'entreprenariat rural
• Le Fonds d’Appui aux Initiatives Economiques des Jeunes (FAIEJ) est un dispositif intégré d’appui technique et financier du gouvernement togolais qui vise l’insertion socioprofessionnelle des jeunes à travers la promotion de l’entrepreneuriat
• Le Fonds National de la Finance Inclusive (FNFI), est une institution de refinancement des IMF, dont l’objectif est de favoriser l’accès au crédit pour le segment le plus marginalisé de la population, avec des produits comme AJISEF (Accès des jeunes aux Services Financiers) et AGRISEF (Accès des Agriculteurs aux services financiers).
• Le Programme d'Appui à l'Insertion Economique des Jeunes dans les Secteurs Porteurs (PAIEJ SP)

2. Plateformes permettant aux jeunes agriculteurs de participer à la prise de décisions qui les touchent.

Aucune plateforme permettant aux jeunes agriculteurs de participer à la prise de décisions qui les touchent n'existe au Togo

3. Système de récompenses et d’incitations pour motiver les jeunes à s’impliquer dans le secteur agicole.

Oui, des systèmes de récompenses et d’incitation pour motiver les jeunes à s’impliquer dans le secteur agicole existent au Togo. J'ai cité plus haut :

• Le Fonds d’Appui aux Initiatives Economiques des Jeunes (FAIEJ) qui est un dispositif intégré d’appui technique et financier du gouvernement togolais qui vise l’insertion socioprofessionnelle des jeunes à travers la promotion de l’entrepreneuriat
• Le Fonds National de la Finance Inclusive (FNFI), qui est une institution de refinancement des IMF, dont l’objectif est de favoriser l’accès au crédit pour le segment le plus marginalisé de la population, avec des produits comme AJISEF (Accès des jeunes aux Services Financiers) et AGRISEF (Accès des Agriculteurs aux services financiers).
• Le Programme d'Appui à l'Insertion Economique des Jeunes dans les Secteurs Porteurs (PAIEJ SP) qui sélectionne et incube les jeunes désireux de faire carrière dans l'agroindustrie.

Cordialement

Atsu SENAME

Knowledge manager à ETD

***

Hello Justin! Hello everyone!

I would like to share with you examples from Togo on the three points raised.

Are there good examples in your countries or in your working environment, on any of the following points, you would like to share in this discussion?

1. Where government policies have created a favorable environment for youth participation in agriculture.

Togo has a well-developed political framework that creates a favorable environment for youth participation in agriculture.

• The Stratégie de Croissance Accélérée et de Promotion de l’Emploi (SCAPE) [Strategy for accelerated growth and employment promotion], of which the first objective is related to agriculture;
• Le Programme National d’Investissement Agricole et de Sécurité Alimentaire (PNIASA) [National program for agricultural investment and food security];
• Le Programme National de Développement Agricole au Togo (PNDAT) [National program for agricultural development in Togo];
• Financial measures for supporting rural agricultural training and rural entrepreneurship.
• The Fonds d’Appui aux Initiatives Economiques des Jeunes (FAIEJ) [Fund in Support of economic initiatives of the young] is an integrated measure for technical and financial support by the Togolese government for the socio-professional inclusion of the young through the promotion of entrepreneurship.

• The Fonds National de la Finance Inclusive (FNFI), [National Fund for inclusive financing] is an institution for refinancing IMFs where the objective is to facilitate access to credit for the most marginalized segment of the population, with products like AJISEF (Accès des jeunes aux Services Financiers, [Access of the young to financial services]) and AGRISEF (Accès des Agriculteurs aux services financiers, [Access of farmers to financial services]).

• Le Programme d'Appui à l'Insertion Economique des Jeunes dans les Secteurs Porteurs (PAIEJ SP) [Support program for economic integration of the young into the distribution sector].

2. Platforms enabling the young farmers to participate in the decision making that concerns them.

No platforms enabling the young farmers to participate in the decision making that concerns them exists in Togo.

3. System of rewards and incentives to motivate the young to get involved in the agricultural sector.

Yes, there are systems of rewards and incentives to motivate the young to get involved in the agricultural sector in Togo. I have noted above:

• The Fonds d’Appui aux Initiatives Economiques des Jeunes (FAIEJ) [Fund in support of economic initiatives of the young] which is an integrated  measure for technical and financial support by the Togolese government on behalf of the socio-professional integration of the young through the promotion of entrepreneurship.
• The Fonds National de la Finance Inclusive (FNFI), [National fund for inclusive financing] which is an institution for refinancing MFIs [microfinance institutions] where the objective is to facilitate access to credit for the most marginalized segments of the population, with products like AJISEF (Accès des jeunes aux Services Financiers, [Access of the young to financial services]) and AGRISEF (Accès des Agriculteurs aux services financiers, [Access of farmers to financial services]).
• Le Programme d'Appui à l'Insertion Economique des Jeunes dans les Secteurs Porteurs (PAIEJ SP) which selects and fosters the young wishing to make a career in agro-industry.

Sincerely

Atsu SENAME

ETD Knowledge Manager

What are the biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture?

The challenges affect youth most of the time are more likely linked to asymmetric information limit access to markets and this can not solved by relying on ICT or communication itself.

The information to promote youth involved in Agriculture, is merely and fundamentaly to the willingness of different nations in Africa to give hand for the youth in fact once the information as channel to liberalize. youth can be able to engage in viable and sustainable agricultural ventures.

Access to markets for youth is becoming even more difficult due to the growing international influence of  the rigorous standards of their supply chains. Young  in developing countries face additional constraints in accessing markets, due in part to the fact that their freedom of movement is sometimes limited by cultural norms.

What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?

There are four ecosystems that will enable the sustainability of youth in agriculture. These are the financial environment, market, Infrastructure and institutional environment. As already mentioned agriculture enterprises require more patient financing than any other enterprises due to the nature of activities involved. Government need to set aside special financial schemes to promote youth in agriculture to raise the needed capital for investment. 

Market is key for survival in agricultural space. The deliberate creation of market for young people products through a policy to procure produce from youth in agriculture for government interventions such as school feeding will sustain their enterprises. When offtakers for produce of young people are assured, their involvemnt in the agricultural value chain will be sustained. 

Insfrastructure in term of roads, ICT, and others must be provided to support the youth in agriculture. These facilities are needed to enhance operations along the value chain. For youth to be engaged in decent employment in Afrca there must be decent infrastructure provided in term of good roads, ICT facilities, social amenities, Schools etc. 

Finally Institutions established to ensure business and agriculture must be more youth friendly. Business registration systems and processes must be aligned to meet the needs of the youth. Standard and certification authorities must educate and orient youth to produce products of standard for both local and international markets. 

When all these four ecosystems are put in place for youth in agriculture, sustainability of capacity bulibing initiatives will be assured. 

I think one of the things to look at is the structure of the capacity building itself. Is it that capacity development has to be that one has to farm or training is it in a way that challenges youth to rethinks agribusiness altogether and is utilize whatever skills they have from their background in agribusiness? Case and example is Twiga foods that utilizes tech to address supply chain and delivery issues in bananas in Kenya.

Is there a role for modern technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies, in sustaining capacity development initiatives?

There is a huge role for modern technology in every sector. Currently, food prices in urban areas have sky rocketed because of distribution challenges. Is there potential for youth to tap into such a gap and create solutions yes, and some of these innovations are made possible by modern technology. Communication technologies are vital as this is how information among the youth is shared not only on experiences but is also a major avenue through which they can support each other.

VERSION FRANÇAISE CI-DESSOUS

Thus far, contributions to the discussion have shown that African youth engaged in agriculture face several challenges for which the solution requires a holistic approach that addresses the interlinked three dimensions of capacity development – individuals, institutions and the enabling environment in which CD initiatives targeting youth in agriculture can sustainably realise the desired impact.

Discussions on question 4 – enabling environment needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture CD initiatives, highlights the following factors relating to government policies, financing arrangements for youth in agriculture, infrastructure, and youth empowerment through incentives, and involving the youth in decision making:

• Government policies that create an enabling environment that removes obstacles to youth participation and investment in the agricultural sector (taking into consideration the entire value chain); promote youth agripreneurs and allow SMEs in agriculture to grow; assure youth with access to market and agro-inputs; consider the heterogeneity (gender, education level, urban or rural dwellers, etc.) of youth in agriculture; and make it easy for youth in agriculture to participate in decision making, planning and implementation processes.
• Government guarantees to enable the youth to access financial services, especially for small start-ups and smallholder young farmers;
• Reduction on taxes for agro-inputs for youth getting into agriculture;
• Infrastructure development including development of rural areas to facilitate easy access to areas where agricultural production is taking place and to the markets;
• Involving youth in agricultural consultations and related decisions that affect them and avoid holding consultations on youth in agriculture side events;
• Establish rewards and incentives systems for youth engaged in agriculture to motivate them and to attract those considering entering the sector;
• Empower youth through incubation systems that will allow them to access expertise/mentorship/coaching and research services without paying for these services directly;
• Develop guidelines and indicators for monitoring youth involvement in agriculture to facilitate documenting impact and generating lessons learned.

Are there good examples in your countries or work environment, on any of the following, that you could share on this discussion?

1. Government policies that have created an enabling environment for youth to engage in agriculture.
2. Platforms that are in place in which youth in agriculture participate in making decision that affect them.
3. Rewards and incentive systems to motivate youth in agriculture.

Regards,

Justin Chisenga

***

Les contributions au débat reçues jusqu' à présent ont montré que les jeunes Africains qui travaillent dans l'agriculture font face à plusieurs défis dont la solution exige une approche holistique qui aborde les trois dimensions interdépendantes du renforcement des capacités, à savoir les individus, les institutions et l'environnement favorable dans lequel les initiatives de renforcement des capacités axées sur les jeunes en agriculture peuvent durablement obtenir l'impact désiré.

Les échanges de vues sur la question 4 - environnement favorable nécessaire pour assurer la durabilité des initiatives de renforcement des capacités des jeunes dans l'agriculture, mettent en évidence les facteurs suivants qui sont liés aux politiques gouvernementales, aux dispositions de financement pour les jeunes dans l'agriculture, aux infrastructures et à l'autonomisation des jeunes par le biais d'incitations, et à la participation des jeunes à la prise de décision:

· Des politiques gouvernementales qui créent un environnement favorable à la suppression des obstacles qui freinent la participation des jeunes et  l'investissement dans le secteur agricole (pour l'ensemble de la chaîne de valeur); qui encouragent les jeunes entrepreneurs agricoles et permettent aux PME dans le secteur agricole de croître; qui assurent aux jeunes l'accès au marché et aux intrants agricoles; qui tiennent compte de l'hétérogénéité (genre, niveau d'éducation, population urbaine ou rurale, etc., et qui facilitent la participation des jeunes aux processus de prise de décision, de planification et de mise en œuvre en agriculture.

• Des garanties publiques pour permettre aux jeunes d'accéder à des services financiers, en particulier pour les petites entreprises en démarrage et les jeunes agriculteurs ;
• Une réduction des taxes sur les intrants agricoles pour les jeunes qui se lancent dans l'agriculture ;
• Le développement d’infrastructures, y compris des zones rurales afin de faciliter l'accès aux zones de production agricole et aux marchés;
• Impliquer les jeunes dans les consultations agricoles et les décisions connexes qui les touchent et éviter de tenir des consultations sur les jeunes lors d'événements parallèles en agriculture;
• Mettre en place des systèmes de récompenses et d'incitations pour motiver les jeunes agriculteurs et attirer ceux qui envisagent d'entrer dans le secteur ;
• Habiliter les jeunes grâce à des systèmes d'incubation qui leur permettront d'accéder à des services d'expertise, de mentorat, d'encadrement et de recherche sans payer directement pour ces services ;
• Élaborer des lignes directrices et des indicateurs pour le suivi de la participation des jeunes à l'agriculture pour mieux documenter les impacts et les leçons apprises ;

Existe-t-il de bons exemples dans vos pays ou dans votre environnement de travail, sur l'un ou l'autre des points suivants, dont vous aimeriez nous faire part dans cette discussion?

1. Des politiques gouvernementales ayant créé un environnement favorable à la participation des jeunes dans l'agriculture.

2. Plateformes permettant aux jeunes agriculteurs de participerà la prise de décisions qui les touchent.

3. Système de récompenses et d’incitations pour motiver les jeunes à s’impliquer dans le secteur agicole.

Cordialement

Justin Chisenga

One of the pathways to ensuring the long-term impact of youth-specific CD initiatives in Africa is to effectively consolidate on the achievements of current CD programmes, and striking strategic alliances with regional/international partners to continually upgrade youth’s capacity to harness the enormous potential of ICT, especially access to high-speed digital services in benefiting from the huge agribusiness opportunities on the continent. One of the recent global CD-financing frameworks in this regards is the G20 Compact with Africa (CWA)'s initiave which is G20-Africa coordinated and concerted efforts on capacity development cooperation towards launching the G20 Initiative for Rural Youth Employment, and contributing to creating 1.1 million new jobs by 2022 and to providing innovative skills development programmes for at least 5 million young people over the next five years.

Government and NGO based initiatives often need strong structures to implement and sustain post capacity development initiatives. Sadly, the case has been mostly of weak structures generating results with mixed success. Challenges such as access to post capacity development intiatives are very limited with inadequate funds made worse by the heavy politics involved. More importantly, the question of marketing of agricultural produce, product storage and transport have not always been answered with weak government support. 

The case study of a state government project in my country has led to my above conclusion. When government embark on capacity development initiatives by providing infrastructure, inadequate training, limited funding to a non-target audience with no non-governmental organisation involvement, the results are certain to provoke almost a no change in status quo. If training, infrastructure, funding were adequately provided to target youth participants with a true interest in Agriculture, other support in terms of storage, transport and marketing through collaborations with agro-allied or agricultural produce companies will fan the embers of youth engagement in agriculture and generate a much needed success. A missing link in my case study.

The youth can support each other by forming local cooperatives to generate and manage funds, creating agro-markets (online and site), forming local working groups for mentorship and embracing the advantages of Information and communication technologies (ICT). ICT has the potential to solve marketing concerns through E-Commerce platforms, provide access to agro-transport and assist in helping farmers meet export requirements of agricultural produce.

In conclusion, government and NGO support in capacity development of youth for agriculture must continue all the way from farm to consumer. A strong capacity development initiative should involve the trio of stakeholders which are youths, NGOs and government.

Thank you all for this very vibrant and excellent contributions to this important discussion. African Agribusiness Incubators Network (AAIN) as a private sector network has a mandate of incubating incubators for job and wealth creation. The incubators and incubator hubs target to support startups whose composition is mainly educated, uneducated ,rural and urban youth in Africa .The network is composed of incubators that supports the setup of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Small Scale Agribusiness Incubator hubs (SSAIH) and offer  mentorship Programme in Africa. The Mentorship program is designed to support startups, individuals, SME’s, groups or cooperatives from across Africa engaged in diverse value chains, with the aim to make them competitive in their respective value chain, business, country or region. 

Qn: What post-capacity development support do the youth need?

As noted from other contributors. I think, in addition the following areas are critical towards capacity development of youth in agriculture and agribusiness in Africa:

1. Hand holding support through mentorship provision by incubators to address transitional challenges faced by the youth in agriculture sector. This can be done by strengthening and creating relevant Incubators to improve their service delivery through human and institutional capacity development leading to increased support to youth at various levels. The incubators also join a Peer Network for extended knowledge sharing among youth and associated actors.
2. Support youth and associates to map out the business ecosystems, define the operational parameters, the targeting of the value chain, the business models and sustainability plans to youth related enterprises and startups.
3. Financing Incubation. Currently there are no funds that are designed to respond to the incubator/incubation needs. Agribusiness to support Youth requires structured financing and AAIN works with its partners to redesign how existing resources can be modelled for the benefit of agribusiness incubators and for impact, based on the establishment of an African Agribusiness Incubation Fund (AAIF).

Qn: What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

• Formation of peer to peer youth technical advisory clubs and associations by developing youth driven solutions to meet the needs of Agribusiness Value Chain actors and those of their peer groups. The solutions can range from capacity development, technology pipelining, business development, enterprise development, input and output market development as well as business modelling.
• Start peer to peer saving and investment clubs to kick start enterprises with high potential for growth and development .This will attract joint investment options, equity, credit, risk grantee and bankability of youth related enterprises leading to more jobs and employment opportunities.

QN: What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?

• Following a renewed international focus on the economic development potential of the African agricultural sector, there has been a growing interest in finding approaches that can support, accelerate and sustain the development of agricultural innovation systems and promote the growth of agribusiness enterprises. Among other business development instruments, business incubators and public-private partnerships have been promoted as two important policy tools.
• There need for increased investment in agriculture , Agribusiness and infrastructure development to attract youth in the sector .This investment must be driven by public and private sector partnership models.
• Both government and private sector need to develop a clear reward system with clear incentives and benefits along agriculture and agribusiness value chain development that is attractive to youth in Africa

Dear all

Great contributions so far. Thanks to everyone for the knowledge shared. I am Ken Lohento, Programme Coordinator at the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA), based in the Netherlands; we cover Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries. I focus on youth in agriculture and ICT activities and I am Focal Point for Youth in agriculture activities for CTA. You can have information about our youth activities on links such as : CTA Youth Strategy; stories on some young agripreneurs; our youth Facebook Page and our Pitch AgriHack program page. CTA has been supporting youth in agriculture through various programs and activities relating for example to young farmer involvement in farmers organisations, ICT, youth in agriculture policies, supporting youth specific projects on the ground.

I would like to focus on the first question for now:

1. What are the biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture?

As many contributions pointed out, big challenges after capacity development initiatives are lack of access to productive equipment (including lands for production), lack of access to finance and lack of access to profitable markets. But this may be an easy answer.

In many agriculture/agribusiness development programmes that included training, or leveraged on already provided training, youths have been provided with credits or grants but in many cases, these resources have not been always used adequately. Re-payment rates are sometimes as low as 10% for loans. This may be related to the fact that sometimes, those trained and provided with financial resources are not youth with the right profile, actual agripreneurs or motivated aspirant agripreneurs. Sometimes, beneficiaries of programs concluded by provision of start-up funds may just be youth rewarded for their involvement in political militancy. Therefore, in many cases, youth may face mismanagement of the agribusiness programme that was supposed to support them and sometimes, youth themselves just don't do the right thing.

In other cases, though technical agricultural training would have been provided, business management skills are lacking in the youth. Business management skills are necessary not only to know to manage daily the business, but also how to implement successful business strategies (which can help you, for example, know how to seize market opportunities, manage relations with the supply chain, even in times of market challenges). It has also to be reminded that a person with business management capacity is not necessary a good financial manager. Accounting capacity (for records keeping and general account management) and financial management capacity (understanding how to implement sound financial strategies, including for successful additional resource mobilisation) is often lacking in small and young entreprises in Africa; therefore they don't grow easily, and stagnate or fail. In some cases, young companies may just need to have the resources to pay for an accountant and/or financial manager. And in other cases, the promoter has to understand that it should be the personal with capacity to understand and implement financial operations who should be selected to attend specific finance related training.

Talking about aspirant agripreneurs, not everyone can become a successful entrepreneur, though you are encouraged to try (if you don’t try, you can’t even have the chance to succeed). Globally, it is often said that 9 out of 10 young companies fail in the first three years. African stats may even be worse, but we don’t have enough stats on discontinuation of young companies on the continent. Failure reasons may include other issues such as the unfavourable (agri)business environment; too high tax rate for start-up/young/small companies, etc. Banks usually do not have financial credit schemes favourable to youth, because they believe that young businesses are just businesses (therefore, we need to have youth friendly business policies that government have to adopt and implement). (By the way, failure needs to be more valued, and we should put in place strategies to learn more from companies and entrepreneurs that face those difficulties. Actually the use of the word "failure" is not always relevant as young companies can pivot and become more successful)

Other post capacity development challenges include the lack of continued agribusiness mentorship/incubation schemes. Some training programs are very short, some even though they may last three months would have lasting effectiveness if they are complemented by periodical incubation/mentorship schemes. There is therefore a need to call for the strengthening of agribusiness incubators (many are young and weak, including in their governance) and agribusiness incubation schemes in Africa.

I will share more comments later on other questions.

Regards, Ken